Programmers Andrew Davie and Thomas Jentzsch, in association with publishers AtariAge and First Star Software, Inc, have announced that the original game in the Boulder Dash® series, Boulder Dash® Volume 1, will be available for purchase for the Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), exclusively from the AtariAge Store, in time for Christmas 2011. The price is $75 and includes the cartridge, box and manual. What makes this game special is that, among other things, the cartridge will contain 16K of RAM, which will allow for as perfect a conversion of the original game as possible, and in some ways - like with the color palette - a bit better. As many of you know, First Star Software was founded in 1982 by Richard Spitalny and Fernando Herrera and was responsible for developing and publishing several classics, including Astro Chase and Spy vs. Spy. The company has stayed in business ever since and is one of the only original companies to continue to support classic platforms, with this licensed version of Boulder Dash being their most recent example.

Here's the thread on AtariAge for more information on the game. Pre-orders are supposed to start soon and a label contest is already underway. Check out the video below for an idea of how the final game looks and sounds:

[ MAR . 20 . 2011 ]
 
Greetings folks! Welcome to the March 20th, 2011 edition of Three for the Road. Sorry for the lack of updates the last couple of weeks but my schedule has just been crazy.

Anyway, I'm back this week with a few more indie games for you to check out. First up we have a new port of a shoot'em up- this time for the venerable Amstrad CPC. Next, we take a look at a new Atari 2600 game with possibly the most horrid storyline since Custer's Revenge. Finally, we look at a shoot'em up that takes on the sensitive topic of bigotry as portrayed by squares and circles.

Great stuff!

The six games for the Atari 2600 VCS are: 3D Ghost Attack!, 3D Genesis, 3D Havoc, Atom Smasher, Depth Charge, and S.A.C. Alert. The 3D games are the first and only 3D games for the platform (they come with paper glasses), Depth Charge was originally designed to be the first head-to-head game where each player has their own console and TV, and S.A.C. Alert was meant to be used with the Amiga Joyboard, the horrible joystick platform you stood on and whose only game actually released was the skiing game, Mogul Maniac. Keep in mind that these six games from the early 1980s are all in various states of completion and Video Soft is rather vague about how playable each one is. Prices range from $30 to $50 plus shipping and handling (if you buy the full $230 set, shipping is free), and each of the six games is limited to a production run of 100 copies, which includes a cartridge, manual and box. Apparently after a particular game sells out, the ROM will be made available to everyone. I'll leave it to this snippet from the Video Soft Website to provide a bit more detail:

http://retromaster.wordpress.com/a2601/

Features:
* Faithful FPGA implementation of the 6502 CPU and TIA (Television Interface Adapter) custom chip.
* Composite Video (currently NTSC only) and Audio output.
* DB9 connector for a MegaDrive/Genesis joypad.
* On-board 512Kb Flash memory for storing cartridge roms.
* Support for most bankswitching schemes used by original game cartridges.
* Design fits in a 100K-gate Spartan-3E FPGA.
* Custom PCB dimensions: 3.25? by 2.5?.
* Complete VHDL source code available under GPL.

This 15-minute episode features Howard Scott Warshaw talking about his rise and fall at Atari, designing the epic win Yar's Revenge and the epic fail E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. It's a moving story that, if anything, will convince you of just how little the industry has learned from that fiasco. Enjoy, and, as always, if you like what you see, tell all of your friends!

A very special thanks to DavyK for providing the box scan for this episode!

Ed Fries, who was vice president of game publishing at Microsoft during much of the Xbox's lifecycle and helped in the acquisitions of Ensemble Studios, Rare - and perhaps most importantly - Bungie Studios, has developed the unexpected--a version of the latter's hugely popular Halo series for the legendary Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS). Fries' recounting of the story is copied below. For more details, see the thread on AtariAge, where you can download the ROM for use in your favorite emulator or for transfer to your favorite flash cart for play on the real thing. There's also a browser-based emulator available, as well as an official Facebook page.

In this episode, Howard and I talk about what it was like working for Atari in the post-Bushnell Kassar years. Did you know that most of Atari's games were reviewed by the MRB--and you'll need to watch the video to learn what that means!

#2 Combat, #3 Video Pinball, #4 Kaboom! (Atari 2600)

1970's TV games allowing the family to play Pong was one thing, the Atari 2600 was something different altogether. It still delivered the "family playing together" experience (indeed many first gen titles have no 1 player mode and quite a few offer 4 player modes) but now there was a whole library of games to choose from. It was the first truly programmable console and required you to plug in a cartridge - each one delivering a unique game (at least in theory!) The early days of the 2600 were about the family playing together - and nothing like it was really seen again until the Wii came along.

Bill Martens of Virtual Apple (Apple II and IIgs) fame sent word that his latest project, Virtual Atari, is now open. There are currently over 550 Atari 2600 VCS games on the site, all running in the JStella emulator in Java. Another great site to add to the master browser emulator list!